Gloves are commonly used to protect hands in an industrial or household environment. The gloves, upon wearing, fill with sweat and feel clammy to the user. Advances in glove manufacturing technologies have resulted in partial coating of a fabric knitted liner with an adherent latex layer so that the glove is breathable in the exposed knitted areas. The knitted liners are fabricated from relatively thick robust yarns with a 319 denier, (a denier defined as number of grams of a 9000 meter yarn) or greater using 15-gauge knitting needles or larger. The latex layer formed is also correspondingly thick resulting in a glove with a heavy feel that has limited flexibility. When the latex layer used is made porous in order to provide breathability, the resulting thickness of the porous latex layer is generally greater resulting in an awkward feeling glove with limited touch sensitivity. For equivalent wear resistance, the foam layer must be thicker than a non-foamed layer. A number of patents address gloves and their forming methods using relatively thick knitted liner and a thick coating of latex layers. The combination of a thick knitted liner and a thick foamed latex layer do not result in a small overall glove thickness and the glove product does not provide flexibility and easy mobility of fingers and hand.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,514,460 and 4,515,851 to Johnson disclose slip resistant surfaces. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,555,813 and 4,567,612 to Johnson discloses slip resistant gloves. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,569,707 and 4,589,940 to Johnson disclose methods of making foamed slip resistant surfaces. This porous surface is particularly useful for workers in work environments wherein the gloves are breathable and have moisture-absorbing properties. The surface is a foam surface laminated to a knitted or woven web substrate. The polyurethane, polyvinyl chloride, acrylonitrile; natural rubber, synthetic rubber foam, prior to lamination, may be foamed with varying amounts of air depending upon the degree of abrasion resistance required. The foaming may be by mechanical or chemical means.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,497,072 and 4,785,479 to Watanabe disclose porous coated glove and method of making a glove. Broken air bubbles form the porous surface. The air cells are closed and provide cold protection and waterproof qualities. The thick closed cell foam is bonded to woven or knitted sewn fabric. Due to its cold protection properties this is a thick glove with minimal flexibility.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,729 to Heeter et al. discloses method and apparatus for producing a breathable coated fabric. The method involves coating a fabric substrate with a resin then opening pores in the resin by directing a flow of air through the fabric substrate and resin coating. The pores provide breathability of the coated fabric and allow for a vapor or moisture transmission rate about ten times that of a resin coated fabric without pores. Forcing air through uncured resin generally results in uncontrolled airflow passages and in the worst case, delamination of the resin from the fabric.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,812 to Krocheski discloses a leak proof textile glove. A cotton glove is inverted and dipped in a PVC or polyurethane latex solution to make the cotton glove impervious to water or oil. The glove is inverted so that the cotton surface is the gripping surface while the latex layer contacts the skin. The latex layer may be optionally flocked to provide a better skin feel. There is no knitted liner in this glove. The latex layer applied is impervious to water or oil, but is not breathable.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,527,990 to Yamashita et al. discloses a method for producing a rubber glove. The rubber glove is made by sequential immersion of a glove mold in coagulating synthetic rubber latex that contains thermally expansible microcapsules. During the vulcanization of the synthetic rubber latex, these microcapsules burst providing excellent anti-blocking and grip under wet or dry conditions. There is no knitted liner in this glove and the latex layer completely surrounds the hand.
U.S. Patent Publication 2002/0076503 to Borreani discloses a clothing article such as a working or protective glove made from textile support. The textile support receives an adherence primer in the form of an aqueous calcium nitrate. The textile support with the adherence primer is coated with a foamed aqueous polymer, preferably an aliphatic polyether urethane or polyester urethane entirely or partially. The foamed aqueous polymer only appears on the support outer part without going through the textile support mesh. When the textile support is too hydrophilic, 2-5% fluorocarbon is added to the aqueous latex emulsion. The size of the yarn in the textile support is not indicated. The patent does not indicate why the aqueous polymer does not penetrate the textile support mesh. The viscosity of the aqueous air foam is in the range of 1500 to 3000 centipoise and this thick foam may not enter the mesh, but only contacts the fibers at very localized regions creating a poor bond between the polymeric layer and the textile support.
U.S. Patent Publication 2004/0221364 to Dillard et al. discloses methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture for providing a foam glove. A textile shell is coated with a foamed polymeric coating that is supported in part by the surface of the textile shell. Sufficient amount of air mixed with the base polymer to lower the density of the base polymer between about 10 to 50% of the original density of the base polymer. The textile shell is knitted using nylon, polyester, aramid, cotton, wool, rayon or acrylic fibers. The foam cells absorb liquid, which indicates that the foamed polymer does not protect the hand from water or oil present on the object being gripped. The yarn is said to be knitted with a 15-gauge needle using a Shima Seki knitting machine that fixes the size of the knitted textile shell to be a thick shell, not a thin shell. As a result, the foam glove is a thick product and is not very flexible.
GB 730879 discloses laminated material and method of making same. The laminated material comprises a backing layer and a foam latex layer secured together by penetration substantially half way through the backing layer fabric, the exposed surface of the latex layer having had removed by friction that outer portion which can be readily separated there from. The penetrated foam does not separate by friction. This is not a foam layer on a backing layer that remains intact during use.
GB 2400051 and WO2005088005 disclose a polymeric garment material. The polymeric garment material is made by applying coagulant to a substrate, which may be present on a mould, applying foam of a polymeric material to the substrate, allowing the coagulant to coagulate some of the foam and removing uncoagulated foam from the substrate to leave a layer of coagulated polymeric material on the substrate. Spraying liquid such as water or directing a jet of gas such as air onto the substrate may remove the uncoagulated foam. After removing uncoagulated foam, the substrate may be immersed in water to remove coagulant. The polymeric material may be one or more of nitrile latex, natural latex, polyurethane latex, polyvinyl chloride latex, neoprene and polyvinylacetate. Blasting the foam leaves only a portion of the applied foam layer providing non-uniform coverage of the foamed elastomeric layer. The pressure of the jet may force the uncured gelled polymer into the interstices between the fibers of the substrate.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for thin lightweight highly flexible latex gloves that has the latex layer applied to only portions of the lightweight knitted liner providing breathability of the glove. It is also desirable to have a latex layer that is porous providing additional breathability and improved flexibility. It is desirable to prevent entry of oil or water through the porous latex layer.